The 31-year-old 12-time world champion clocked 4min 10.392sec to win the men's C1 1,000 metres at the Sea Forest Waterway venue.

Brendel is the back-to-back Olympic champion in the discipline having won gold at London 2012 and Rio 2016.

Russia's Kirill Shamshurin was second today in 4:10.891 as European Games champion and world silver medallist Tomasz Kaczor of Poland ended third in 4:13.498.

Other winners today included four-time world champion Maryna Litvinchuk in the women's K1 500m.

The Belarus paddler timed in at 1:59.649 to edge New Zealand's Lisa Carrington, a double Olympic gold medallist, into second place in 2:00.394.

It meant a second gold of the event for Litvinchuk who also won the women's K1 200m two days ago.

Alyssa Bull of Australia stopped the watches at 2:00.825 for third place.

Hungary's Sandor Totka won the men's K1 200m as the double world champion crossed the line in 37.335sec.

Arturas Seja of Lithuania clocked 37.482 for second position as Balazs Birkas of Hungary ended third in 37.742.

Further Hungarian success arrived in the women's C2 500m as Virag Balla and Kincso Takacs ended in 2:05.096.

Ksenia Kurach and Olesia Romasenko of Russia timed in at 2:05.594 for second and Nadzeya Makarchanka and Volha Klimava of Belarus managed 2:07.086 for third.

Tom Liebscher, an Olympic gold medallist for Germany in the K4 1,000m, teamed up with Jacob Schopf to win the K2 1,000m.

Their time was 3:26.448 as Samuele Burgo and Luca Beccaro of Italy ended in 3:26.906 as runners-up.

Cyrille Carre and Etienne Hubert of France were third in 3:27.157.